Editor's Note Spring 2016

Last fall I was an intern on a Vermont sheep and fruit farm, and over the course of three weeks I used parts of my brain that I tap so rarely they might as well be located in my elbow. Normally I spend my days as a writer and editor, working with words, and like most of us I don’t tax my thinking beyond what my chosen line of work asks of me. My brain is narrow. It is used to doing one or two things well.

The Great Garden Cover Up

Cover crops and green manures may be terms you usually associate with farming, but they’re important for even a small-scale home gardener. “Cover crops” usually refers to grains or legumes grown in fall to “cover” the soil in winter.

Set the Table with Local Oils

Netaka White remembers going to some of the first local food challenges in Vermont—potluck meals to which attendees would bring food that was entirely grown or raised within Vermont, or a 50-mile radius.

The Huntress

In 2013, Murphy Robinson asked to buy a live lamb from our farm. It would, she explained, be used in her first Huntress Intensive, a weekend workshop for women on how to hunt, and it would be taken from live to butchered in order to teach how to properly field dress an animal.

Home for Supper

Ask a longtime Vermont fruit grower or gardener about Lewis Hill and they’ll probably tell you how he inspired and nurtured their love of growing fruit. Maybe he introduced them to uncommon fruits such as black currants and elderberry.

A Rising Collaboration

Once upon a time, in cobblestoned villages across Europe, brewers and bakers depended on each other, trading beer and spent grains for loaves of bread made with those grains. But on our side of the Atlantic, this relationship has largely been lacking.

The Shearer’s Daughter

During peak shearing seasons, Gwen often leaves her house at 4 a.m. and doesn’t return until after 10 p.m. Over those long days she might shear more than 100 sheep and drive several hundred miles, barely stopping for a meal. She estimates that annually she drives 40,000 miles and shears 8,000 to 10,000 sheep.

Building Brands in a Small Farm Food System

Small farms in Vermont contribute tremendous value to our evolving food system by being nimble enough to respond to shifting consumer demand quickly. Small farms have pioneered niche products, such as multi-variety mesclun mixes and hybrid CSA memberships.

Farmers' Kitchen—Caprine Cake

AlpineGlo Farm, tucked on a hillside in Westminster, has been the site of our homestead since 2001. We originally intended the property to be a place to raise and train horses, as my husband and I both have a strong equine background, but we soon found many more uses for the land.

Mark Cannella

Mark Cannella is an assistant professor of Extension with the University of Vermont and directs UVM Extension Farm Viability programs. Farm Viability provides a variety of farm management education programs and undertakes applied research in farm economics for audiences statewide. He also operates a small farm growing specialty potatoes in East Montpelier.

What we do

A quarterly magazine devoted to covering local food, sustainable farming, and the many people building the Vermont food system.

Vermont's Local Banquet Magazine illuminates the connections between local food and Vermont communities. Our stories, interviews, and essays reveal how Vermont residents are building their local food systems, how farmers are faring in a time of great opportunity and challenge, and how Vermont’s agricultural landscape is changing as the localvore movement shapes what is grown and raised here.